NOTES!
NOTES!
Summary
Africa, the second largest continent in the world with a history of colonialism is
home to many pastoral communities like Bedouins, Berbers, Maasai, Somali, Boran and
Turkana.
They live in semi-arid grasslands where agriculture is not possible and earn a
living through their livestock like cattle, camels, goats, sheep and donkeys by
selling their milk, meat, animal skin and wool.
In the pre-colonial period the Maasai land stretched from north Kenya to northern
Tanzania but in 1885 was cut into half with an international boundary between
British Kenya and German Tanganyika. 60% of Maasai land was taken over for white
settlements pushing the Massai’s to an arid zone with uncertain rainfall and poor
pastures.
Though an income source for the colonizers, it was a blow to the pastoralists as
they were not allowed to enter these reserves; nor hunt animals or graze their
herds in turn affecting their livelihood. The droughts of 1933 and 1934 caused
immense damage to the Massai’s losing half of their livestock.
The British colonists interfered in the traditional customs of the Maasai trying
controlling their society. The British appointed various chiefs from other sub
groups and placed restrictions on warfare and raiding.
The appointed chiefs became rich by trading in the towns and lending money to the
poor pastoralists at high interest rates. They worked in towns, building roads and
in construction, as charcoal burner or doing odd jobs. This also caused a huge
distinction between the rich and the poor pastoralists.
Introduction
In our daily life, we see poverty all around us. They could be landless labourers
in villages, people living in overcrowded jhuggis in cities, daily wage workers or
child workers in dhabas. According to facts, in India every fourth person is poor.
Poverty means hunger and lack of shelter, lack of clean water and sanitation
facilities, lack of a regular job at a minimum decent level. Poverty is considered
as one of the biggest challenges of independent India. India would be truly
independent only when the poorest of its people become free of human suffering.
Poverty Line
Poverty Estimates
In India, there is a substantial decline in poverty ratios from about 45 per cent
in 1993-94 to 37.2 per cent in 2004–05. The proportion of people below the poverty
line further came down to about 22 per cent in 2011–12.
Vulnerable Groups
Social groups, vulnerable to poverty are Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe.
Similarly, among the economic groups, the most vulnerable groups are the rural
agricultural labour households and urban casual labour households. According to a
recent study, except scheduled tribe, all the other three groups (i.e. scheduled
castes, rural agricultural labourers and the urban casual labour households) have
seen a decline in poverty in the 1990s.
Inter-State Disparities
In India, the proportion of poor people is not the same in every state. Bihar and
Odisha continued to be the two poorest states with poverty ratios of 33.7 and 32.6
percent, respectively. Urban poverty is high in Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and
Uttar Pradesh. Kerala, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and West
Bengal saw a decline in poverty. Punjab and Haryana have traditionally succeeded in
reducing poverty with the help of high agricultural growth rates. Kerala has
focused more on human resource development. In West Bengal, land reform measures
have helped in reducing poverty. In Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, public
distribution of food grains is responsible for the improvement.
Causes of Poverty
There are various reasons for widespread poverty in India.
1. Under British control, India had a low level of economic development. New
policies of the colonial government ruined traditional handicrafts and discouraged
development of industries. like textiles. Low rate of growth and an increase in
population combined to make the growth rate of per capita income very low. With the
spread of irrigation and the Green revolution, many job opportunities were created
in the agriculture sector. However, these were not enough to absorb all the job
seekers.
2. Another feature of high poverty rates has been the huge income inequalities. One
of the major reasons for this is the unequal distribution of land and other
resources. In India, lack of land resources has been one of the major causes of
poverty in India, but proper implementation of policy could have improved the lives
of millions of rural poor.
3. Small farmers needed money to buy agricultural inputs like seeds, fertilizer,
pesticides, etc. So, they used to borrow money and were unable to repay the loan
because of poverty.
Anti-Poverty Measures
The current anti-poverty scheme is divided into two parts.
Since the eighties, India’s economic growth has been one of the fastest in the
world. There is a strong link between economic growth and poverty reduction. Some
of the schemes which are formulated to affect poverty directly or indirectly are:
2. In 1993, Prime Minister Rozgar Yojana (PMRY) was started. The main aim of the
programme is to create self-employment opportunities for educated unemployed youth
in rural areas and small towns.
3. In 1995, Rural Employment Generation Programme (REGP) was launched. The aim of
the programme is to create self-employment opportunities in rural areas and small
towns.
4. In 1999, Swarnajayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY) was launched. The programme
aims at bringing the assisted poor families above the poverty line by organising
them into self-help groups, through a mix of bank credit and government subsidy.
5. In 2000, the Pradhan Mantri Gramodaya Yojana (PMGY) was launched. Under this
programme, additional central assistance is given to states for basic services such
as primary health, primary education, rural shelter, rural drinking water and rural
electrification.
In India, Poverty has certainly declined in India, but it still remains India’s
most compelling challenge. Poverty reduction is expected to make better progress in
the next ten to fifteen years. This can be achieved by higher economic growth,
increasing stress on universal free elementary education, declining population
growth, increasing empowerment of the women and the economically weaker sections of
society.
Drainage Class 9 Notes Social Science Geography Chapter 3
In the previous 3 years’ examinations, significant importance has been given to the
following topics from this chapter.
Drainage Patterns
Various River Basin System
Pollution of Rivers.
Drainage’ is a term signifying the river system of an area.
An upland that separates two drainage systems that are next to each other is called
a water divide.
On the basis of origin, there are two river systems of India — The Himalayan rivers
and the Peninsular rivers.
Himalayan rivers are rainfed and snowfed, so they have w?ater in them throughout
the year, i.e., they are perennial and thus navigable.
Himalayan rivers create meanders, oxbow lakes and other depositional features on
their course.
Peninsular rivers are seasonal; mostly depending on rainfall and thus non-
navigable.
Most of the rivers of peninsular India originate in the Western Ghats and flow’
towards the Bay of Bengal.
The major Himalayan rivers are the Indus, the Ganga, and the Brahmaputra.
Rising near Lake Mansarovar in Tibet, the Indus enters India in the Ladakh district
of Jammu and Kashmir.
Rivers Satluj, Beas, Ravi, Chenab and Jhelum join Indus near Mithankot, Pakistan
and flow southwards to fall into the Arabian Sea, east of Karachi.
With a total length of 2,900 km, the Indus is one of the longest rivers of the
world.
Bhagirathi is fed by the Gangotri Glacier and joined by the Alaknanda at Devprayag.
Ganga meets the tributaries from the Himalayas such as Ghaghara, Gandak, Kosi and
the Yamuna.
A major river Yamuna, arising from Yamunotri Glader in the Himalayas, joins Ganga
at Allahabad.
Other tributaries — Chambal, Betwa and Son — come from Peninsular uplands to join
Ganga.
Ganga is joined by the Brahmaputra and flows through Bangladesh to reach the Bay of
Bengal.
The delta formed when the Ganga and the Brahmaputra flow into the Bay of Bengal is
known as the Sunderban Delta.
The length of the Ganga is over 2,500 km and it develops large meanders.
Originating in Tibet, very close to the sources of Indus and Satluj, Brahmaputra
enters India in Arunachal Pradesh and flows to Assam, joined by many tributaries.
The tributaries that join the Brahmaputra are Dibang, Lohit, and Kenula.
The Brahmaputra has a braided channel in its entire length in Assam to form many
riverine islands.
Unlike other north Indian rivers, the Brahmaputra is marked by huge deposits of
silt on its bed, causing the riverbed to rise.
The Thai and Narmada are the only rivers which flow west to make estuaries and
drain into the Arabian Sea.
The drainage basins of the peninsular rivers are comparatively small in size.
Its large basin covers most parts of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and Andhra
Pradesh.
The tributaries which join the Godavari include Purna, Wardha, Pranhita, Manjra,
Wainganga and Penganga.
Because of its length and the area, it covers, the Godavari is also known as the
Dakshin Ganga.
The Mahanadi, a 860 km long river, rises in Chhattisgarh to flow through Orissa to
reach the Bay of Bengal.
Principal tributaries of Mahanadi river are Sheonath, Jonk, Hasdeo, Mand, lb, Ong
and Tel.
The 1,400 km long Krishna river rises from a spring in the Mahadev range near
Mahabaleshwar and falls into the Bay of Bengal.
The tributaries of Krishna include Bhima, Musi, Ghatprabha, Koyana and Tungabhadra.
The Krishna basin is shared by Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.
Rising in the Amarkantak Plateau of Maikala Range, Narmada flows to create a gorge
in marble rocks of Madhya Pradesh.
Narmada flows towards the west in a rift valley formed due to faulting. •
Narmada river has 41 tributaries. The important ones are: Barna, Ganjal, Chhota
Tawa, Hiran, Janatara, Kolar, Orsang, Sher.
Originating in Betul, Madhya Pradesh, the Tapi flows through a basin that covers
Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra.
The main west flowing rivers are Sabarmati, Mahi, Bharatpuzha and Periyar.
The entire Tapi basin can be divided into three sub-basins: upper, middle and lower
and into two well- defined physical regions, viz, the hilly regions and the plains
or Tapi Basin.
Originating in the Brahmagiri range of the Western Ghats, the Kaveri reaches the
Bay of Bengal at Kaveripatnam, sharing its basin with Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala
and Puducherry or Pondicherry.
The main soil types found in the basin are red and yellow soils.
Lakes
Most lakes are permanent while others contain water only during the rainy season.
Some lakes are the result of the glacial action and ice sheets and some may have
been formed by wind, river action and human activities.
A river meandering across a floodplain forms cut-offs that later develop into oxbow
lakes.
Glacial lakes are formed when glaciers dig out a basin which is later filled with
snowmelt.
Some lakes like Wular Lake in Jammu and Kashmir result from tectonic activity.
Apart from natural lakes, the damming of the rivers for the generation of hydel
power has also led to the formation of lakes.
Lakes help to regulate river water flow, prevent flooding, aid to develop hydel
power, moderate climate, maintain aquatic ecosystem, enhance natural beauty,
develop tourism and provide recreation.
Rivers are a natural source of water. It forms the main backbone for agriculture.
Rivers are used for irrigation, navigation, hydropower generation, all vital for
India, and agricultural economy.
River Pollution
A heavy load of untreated sewage and industrial effluents are emptied into the
river affecting the river’s self-cleansing property.
Concern over rising pollution in our rivers led to the launching of various action
plans to clean the rivers like Narmada Bachao Movement.